Childers and Hayes elected as Dublin recount leaves Ryan out

The Green Party leader had requested a recount in the early hours of this morning - after he missed out on a seat in the constituency by just over 1,000 votes.

It means that Fine Gael's Brian Hayes and Independent Nessa Childers have now officially been elected - coming in behind Sinn Féin's Lynn Boylan who topped the poll last night.

"We ran a really good campaign, and 72,000 votes in Dublin supporting us gives us a base to grow from here," Ryan said.

"So, both in the locals and the European elections, we had a good result – ok, we didn't win a seat, and we wish we had, but actually, for the party, for its long-term future, the success we've had in the last two weeks really gives us confidence."

Victorious Nessa Childers, a former member of the Labour party, said she plans to pick up where she left off in Brussels.

"I work in the public health area - I'm vice-president of MEPs against cancer, and chair of the mental health interest group," she said.

"I think these are really important issues - they're not going to get - necessarily - me on the front pages of the newspapers. That's not what I want."